---
"That is the same thing in prettier clothes."
Sekhmet almost said yes. Almost... Then he decided not to reward the accuracy.
He said instead. "Do you understand what kind of future complications that creates? If you vanish into my bloodline, if your body changes, if your personality changes, if your hunger changes, then it is not just about us. It reaches your parents. Your house. Their standing. Their trust in me. Their right to know what is happening to their daughter."
Lily looked at him, very still.
"Ah," she said.
The sound was quiet. It was not mocking. It was not angry. It was something else.
Sekhmet knew that tone. It was recognition. He had finally put his finger on the real center of his refusal.
Then she asked about it. Quietly and Directly.
"Do you love me or not?"
He coughed.
This time the question simply hit him so cleanly that his body went still around it.
The room lost all softness.
